The maximum value of bonds the city expects to issue to fund the hard costs of project is $290 million. Proposals must provide BDC with a preliminary guaranteed maximum price on soft costs not to exceed $195 million.

The Baltimore Convention Center, like the four-acre city-owned parcel the hotel will occupy, sits between Baltimore's Inner Harbor and Oriole Park at Camden Yards sports locale, within close proximity to I-83 and I-95. When completed, the hotel is expected to boost business for the convention center, city officials say. Built in 1979, the meeting venue underwent a $151 million renovation in 1997 that expanded its space from an original 425,000 sf to 1.2 million sf.

"Baltimore City and its waterfront area are the number one tourist spot in the State of Maryland and we want to preserve that," BDC project manager Irene Van Sant tells GlobeSt.com. "The most important outcome of this project is that Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association will have a room block hotel that will compete with other cities that have convention center hotels." As for a completion date for the property, Van Sant says that "this is easily going to be a project that takes 24 to 27 months to build."